Kisha B. Holden, PhD, MSCR is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Community Health & Preventive Medicine; and Interim Director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute (SHLI) at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), founded by David Satcher, MD, PhD, former MSM President and 16th U.S. Surgeon General.

N. D. HernandezMorehouse School of Medicine United States

Natalie D. Hernandez, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine, as well as a Research Fellow in the Prevention Research Center. Dr. Hernandez’s current research and research interests include transdisciplinary approaches to improving women’s health, reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections, health disparities, community-based participatory research, and reproductive social justice. Dr. Hernandez’s expertise includes the health status and health needs of Latinos, promotores de salud (community lay health educators), HPV and cervical cancer among Latinas and other ethnoracial minorities, family planning, and health advocacy.

G. L. WrennMorehouse School of Medicine United States

Glenda Wrenn, MD, MSHP is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). She currently directs the Division of Behavioral Health at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at MSM and is the Interim Co-Director of the Kennedy Center for Mental Health Policy and Research. After graduating West Point, Dr. Wrenn earned her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College, and trained at the University of Pennsylvania in psychiatry and as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. Her work explores fostering resilience, mental health help seeking, inter professional education, and culturally centered integrated primary care behavioral health services.

A. S. BeltonMorehouse School of Medicine

Allyson S. Belton, MPH is an Associate Project Director in the Satcher Health Leadership Institute (SHLI) at Morehouse School of Medicine. Combining her scientific background with her interest in health, she has worked in various capacities of clinical and social/behavioral research. Her areas of interest are most related to the development and improvement of community health initiatives among diverse communities through the examination of behaviors and lifestyles.

Abstract

There is a great need to carefully examine issues that may elevate one’s risk for mental illness and develop strategies to mitigate risk and cultivate resilience. African Americans, specifically African American women (AAW), are disproportionately affected by mental illness, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Higher rates of PTSD among AAW may be explained by significant rates of trauma exposure. Higher resiliency in individuals with mental illnesses is associated with better treatment response/outcomes. An examination of two (2) promising psycho-educational curricula for AAW at risk for depression and PTSD supports consideration of resilience as a protective factor among this population. Strengthening psychological resilience among diverse AAW at risk for depression and/or PTSD may serve as a protective factor for symptom severity. Multidimensional prevention and intervention strategies should incorporate culturally-centered, gender-specific, and strengths-based (resilience) models of care to help encourage mental health help-seeking and promotion of wellness for AAW.

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